Pasifika Fono @ PES

Last night I attended a Pasifika Fono (PELP - Pasifika Early Literacy Project) which was held at school in our staffroom.  We were there to talanoa (talk) about the  Pacific/Pasifika dual language books that our children’s teachers are using in the classroom. The purpose was to help support our parents and to grow the literacy skills of our Pasifika students.

We were really lucky to have Dr Rae Si’ilata joining us to lead this Fono along with the following cultural leaders, some of who are ex-teachers:

• Gagana Samoa: Deborah Meafua-Siafolau

• Lea Faka-Tonga: Luti Tafea

• Te Reo Māori Kūki 'Airani: Peta Ravlich

• Vagahau Niue: Lino Nelisi

Dr Rae Si’ilata presented an amazing presentation about why it is so important to use our 'heart' languages and for Pasifika children to be able to hear their own stories in the books that they read. I was fortunate to spend time with Lino Nelisi who has written many books in both English and Niuean.

Manaiakalani Create Staff Meeting 2020

Yesterday teachers and staff from the Manaiakalani Cluster of schools attended workshops at Tamaki College. The focus was on the 'Create' part of our Learn, Create, Share pedagogy. 

Naomi Rosedale (from Woolf Fisher Research) opened the meeting with an interesting presentation around student design for learning. Apparently slide presentations are used far too often as DLOs (Digital Learning Objects) but there are opportunities to amplify learning through the use of this medium if used effectively. Screencasts could be used more widely in subject areas other than maths. MAPIC was also an interesting concept that was introduced: Multi-modal mapping of ideas, Amplification, Personalisation, Interaction and Coherence. 

Teachers were then able to attend two workshops based around the idea of create to learn. Andrea Tele'a and I presented one workshop based around PENN (our Pt England News Network). PENN is an in-house news programme produced by staff and students and has been broadcast throughout the school four days per week since 1988. It is an opportunity to develop presenting, scripting, movie making and movie production skills. 

The following movie showcases some of our talented teachers who attended our workshop. They did not have time to practice and were literally in front of the camera on arrival to the workshop. Thank you teachers!

I then attended an amazing workshop about how to use MineCraft on an ipad. Thanks to the teachers from Stonefields who led the workshop. 

Reflection about Blogging

The number of posts on my personal inquiry blog has been pretty minimal so far this year. I still have a couple of reflections to post about my experience during the lockdown levels and its impact on teaching and learning experiences for students at our school. However, when I make comparisons between how much I am blogging and how much my own children (both in Year 6) are blogging, I am put to shame.

Recently my children (boy/girl twins) reached a milestone of 200 posts each on their blogs. 200 posts!!! As a mum and teacher I was blown away by this. I noticed that a huge number of posts took place during the months of May and June. My daughter (Julianna) has been quite consistent with blogging during the year. However my son (Kristopher) somehow managed to post 230 times in the space of two months!

Something had changed for my children and I wondered why. I guess that with the changes forced upon teachers during lockdown, they had to do things differently and students had to adapt to the change.

For the first time students connected with their teachers from home via Google Meets. Students were forced to become more independent and lessons were modified and adapted to suit the interests and needs of the students. I noticed that a high level of multi-modal learning opportunities were consistently provided. Then when the students returned to school, this new style of learning and the expectation to post evidence of learning on their blogs (minus the Google Meets) continued.

Another factor for the high level of engagement that I witnessed was that my children became more competitive. They soon realised that their teachers, parents and friends were beginning to take more notice of their posts which encouraged them to post even more. They’ve even decided to challenge one another to see who can do the most blog posts. I’m looking forward to seeing how many posts they will end up with at the end of the year. I’m so proud of them. In the meantime, I need to up my game and put up a few more posts of my own.

Target Group for Inquiry Term 1 Results

10 out of 42 students in the Year 5-8 Extension group achieved at Stanine 5 or at Stanine 4 in the Term 1 Reading PAT Test. That’s quite a large number, but this might be due to the fact that there are now 21 students in each of the Extension groups instead of the usual 18. The three Year 5 students identified are new to Extension. The others have been part of the Extension group for a while now. 8 out of the 10 students achieved at Stanine 4. 

The Goal for this group of students is to achieve at a Stanine 6 or above in the next PAT Reading Test in Oct/Nov 2020.

Inquiry Focus

Collaborative Inquiry - Term 1 Reflection

My inquiry this year is to focus on the students in the extension group who are achieving 'At' or 'Below Average' in the PAT Reading tests. The overall goal is to accelerate the achievement of students in literacy as well as to improve their critical thinking skills.